Wonder Woman of the Week: Georgia O'Keeffe

This week’s spotlight is perhaps the greatest modern painter of the American art movement. Her work illuminated the landscapes of the American West and helped bring to life the colors of the country dominated by the era of black and white photography. Her work inspired a new wave of female painters and her depiction of wildlife helped spark a new philosophy for enjoying the outdoors in a country facing environmental destruction. The Wonder Woman of the Week is Georgia O’Keeffe.

Georgia O’Keeffe was born in 1887 on a wheat farm in Wisconsin. O’Keefe’s family taught her from an early age to respect education. The young artist was fascinated by nature from an early age growing up on the farm and developed a deep curiosity for the complex biology of wildlife. She learned how to paint from her two grandmothers and immediately set to work painting the landscapes she saw around her. Her artistry was only matched by her individuality for which she was well-known and well-liked in school. [1]

In 1905, Georgia O’Keeffe began studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1907 attended the Art Students League in New York. She studying under William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox learning the art of realist panting before 1912 when she changed styles after working with Arthur Wesley Dow. His emphasis on composition and design influenced O’Keeffe’s change from realism to the style for which she would become famous. [2]

Artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s work was greatly inspired by her contemporaries and was a blend of many of the American greats including Paul Strand whose use of close-up photography inspired O’Keefe’s close-up depictions of uniquely American subjects. While she was not defined by any one movement of painting, O’Keeffe was well-known for extracting meaning from nature and portraying it on canvas. Her use of color and scale helped depict nature in ways that black and white photography never could and her work on the landscapes of New Mexico- almost impossibly- displayed the sights of the American Southwest in ways that no painter had ever accomplished. [3]

Georgia O’Keeffe’s work is often misunderstood as erotic art depicting subjects in nature as objects of sexual representation. While this is not entirely wrong, it is a vast misunderstanding of O’Keeffe’s work. O’Keeffe’ chief goal in her career was to depict the subtle symbolism in nature with the beauty of its form by depicting it in paintings displaying the soul of the object and its effect on the psyche of the subject. [4]

The great art movement of the United States may pale in comparison to the historic scale of great European painters; but what the American lack in years, they make up for in quality. Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the greatest painters in the history of the medium and her depictions of the American landscape helped define the American art movement in both style and topic. O’Keeffe’s work helped illuminate the inner nature of her audience with the external wildlife of nature and brought to life human emotion and desire through the depiction of powerful paintings.

“Georgia O’Keeffe Biography.” Biography.com. A&E Entertainment; nd. Web. 14 December 2016.

“About Georgia O’Keeffe.” Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. np; nd. Web. 14 December 2016.

“Georgia O’Keeffe; American Painter.” The Art Story. The Art Story Foundation; nd. Web. 14 December 2016.

“Georgia O’Keeffe Biography.” Georgia O’Keefe; Paintings, Biography, and Quotes. georgiaokeefe.net; nd. Web. 14 December 2016.